Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Brazil from November 13 to 14 to attend the 11th annual summit of BRICS, the government announced on Thursday. The BRICS is a grouping of five countries —- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Ministry of External Affairs Secretary (Economic Relations) T S Tirumurti told reporters that the leaders at the summit would deliberate on boosting overall cooperation among the member nations. Brazil is the current chair of the grouping, which represents more than 3.6 billion people, or half the world’s population, and a combined nominal GDP of $16.6 trillion. The theme of the BRICS Summit this year is ‘Economic Growth for an Innovative Future’. This will be the sixth time Modi will participate in the BRICS Summit. His first was at Fortaleza in Brazil in 2014. The PM will be accompanied by an official delegation. A large business delegation from India is also expected to be present during the visit, especially to attend the BRICS Business Forum where the business community of all five countries are represented. Tirumurti said that an MoU between trade and investment promotion agencies of BRICS would be signed. The BRICS leaders will also agree to establish the Women Business Alliance. “We have also worked closely within BRICS to not only take a strong stand against terrorism but also work to bring about focussed consultations on specific aspects related to terrorism,” Tirumurti said. This year, the joint working group on counter-terrorism has decided to constitute five sub-working groups on counter-terrorism in the following areas —- terrorist financing, use of internet for terrorist purposes, countering radicalisation, issue of foreign terrorists fighters and capacity building, he said. It is expected that India will be chairing the sub-group on use of internet for terrorist purposes, he added. The i-BRICS — Innovation BRICS Network — will be launched, which will include networking of research institutes like science parks, incubators and accelerators. The leaders will also be looking at launching BRICS institutes of Future Networks, the concept of which has been agreed on by the telecom ministers in August. “Greater focus will be given in the area of tuberculosis research,” he said. Apart from participating in the BRICS Summit, Prime Minister will have a bilateral meeting with Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro.
